Insurance premiums up, investment income down at RBC

Royal Bank of Canada released Thursday its financial results for the three months ending April 30, reporting its insurance segment had net earned premiums of $926 million, up 3.6% from $894 million in the three months ending April 30, 2013.

RBC’s insurance offerings in Canada include home, auto, travel, life and group benefits. RBC’s international insurance is comprised mainly of reinsurance for life, health, accident and annuities. In its securities filings, RBC did not report its P&C results separately.

For the six months ending April 30, net earned premiums were $1.879 billion in 2014, up 4% year-over-year from $1.807 billion in the same period in 2013.

Net investment income in insurance was $138 million in the latest quarter, down 47% from $260 million in the three months ending Jan. 31, and down 52.6% from $291 million in the quarter ending April 30, 2013.

For the most recent quarter, RBC’s total revenue in insurance was $1.125 billion, down 9.7% from $1.246 billion during the same period in 2013, and down 0.3% from $1.282 billion in the three months ending Jan. 31, 2014.

RBC reported benefits and claims of $728 million in quarter ending April 30, 2014, down 17.6% from $884 million in the previous quarter, and down 11.3% from $821 million in the three months ending April 30,  2013.

Insurance revenue in the latest quarter was $624 million in RBC’s Canadian business, and $501 million in its international insurance.

RBC reported net income from insurance of $154 million in the latest quarter, compared to $164 million for the same period in 2013. During the latest quarter, for the entire bank, RBC reported net income of $2.2 billion on revenues of $8.27 billion. In 2013, RBC reported 8% of its earnings were in insurance.

In Canada, RBC’s travel coverage include out-of-province and out-of-country country medical coverage, trip cancellation insurance and interruption insurance.

RBC sells its insurance through retail insurance branches, call centres, online and through independent insurance advisors and affinity relationships.

For example, in February 2013, Shoppers Drug Mart  Corp. started providing a link, on the Shoppers website, to RBC travel insurance.